Murdoch faces second grilling over email

Karen Kissane

JAMES Murdoch is likely to be recalled for another grilling by British MPs over the phone-hacking scandal that threatens his career after two former senior executives disputed his claim that he had not known of a crucial email.

House of Commons sources said a decision would be made next Tuesday about whether Mr Murdoch, heir apparent to his father Rupert's media empire, should explain his denial, given the executives were adamant that he knew of the email and understood it meant phone hacking had not been confined to a single rogue reporter.

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News International execs contradict Murdoch

Former News International executives contradict James Murdoch's evidence to an inquiry into the British phone-hacking scandal.

But Mr Murdoch, chairman of News International, issued a statement standing by the evidence he gave to the Parliament's select committee on media in July, in which he said he did not know of the email or of widespread phone hacking when he agreed in 2008 to pay compensation to Professional Footballers Association chief executive Gordon Taylor who was hacked by the News of the World.

He said his recollection of the meeting that allegedly involved the email ''is absolutely clear and consistent''.

James Murdoch likley to be recalled to face the phone hacking inquiry. Photo: Reuters

The email, headed ''for Neville'', is interpreted as evidence that hacking at the paper was not confined to former royal editor Clive Goodman, who was jailed over hacking in 2007, along with private detective Glenn Mulcaire.

London police investigating phone hacking at the News of the World say they have arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voice-mail messages.

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The unidentified man was in custody at a north London police station after being arrested at his home. He is the 16th person arrested since police renewed a probe of the newspaper in January.

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Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson and former managing editor Stuart Kuttner are among those to be questioned by police this year.

Tom Crone, News Group's former legal manager, and Colin Myler, former News of the World editor, told MPs on Tuesday that Mr Murdoch was told of the email, in which a junior reporter transcribed hacked messages from Mr Taylor's voicemail, in a 15-minute meeting in 2008.

Mr Crone said Mr Murdoch had to be told of the email as it was the reason the company had to settle rather than fight Mr Taylor's claim. Mr Murdoch's authorisation was needed for that, he said.

Mr Myler told MPs it was ''inconceivable'' that Mr Murdoch was unaware that the email indicated hacking was more widespread. ''I think everybody perfectly understood the seriousness and significance of what we were discussing. There was no ambiguity about the significance of that document,'' he said.

But Mr Murdoch rejected the claims in his statement yesterday: ''I was told by Mr Crone and Mr Myler … that there was evidence that [private investigator Glenn] Mulcaire had carried out [the interception of Mr Taylor's voicemails] on behalf of the News of the World. It was for this reason alone that Mr Crone and Mr Myler recommended settlement … They did not show me the email, nor did they refer to Neville Thurlbeck [the reporter to whom the email allegedly referred]. Neither Mr Myler nor Mr Crone told me that wrongdoing extended beyond Mr Goodman or Mr Mulcaire.''

Lord Justice Leveson opened his inquiry into media practices and ethics on Tuesday. Rebekah Brooks, as well as victims of media intrusion, including Kate McCann, the mother of missing child Madeleine, have offered to give evidence as have former formula one chief Max Mosley and former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott.